[BIO Logo] The British Informatics Olympiad is
the computing competition for schools and colleges.
Computing problems from the BIO and IOI

A range of Informatics/Computing/Computation problems can be found here, covering a range of difficulties, from problems suitable for beginners all the way through to university-level tasks.

Each year's British Informatics Olympiad consists of three sets of questions: a sample paper (usually taken from the previous year's exam), the main BIO exam, and the final. In many cases worked solutions and/or sample programs are available - and some are accompanied by interactive example solutions that can be run in a Java-enabled web browser. Most problems require a program to be produced as the solution, but some are written only.

The problems from past International Olympiads in Informatics are held by the IOI secretariat. Worked solutions are available to the IOI questions from 1994-96.

BIO exam papers
2019
BIO with marks scheme
BIO final
2018
BIO with marks scheme
BIO final
2017
BIO with marks scheme
BIO final
2016
BIO with marks scheme
BIO final
2015
BIO with marks scheme
BIO final
2014
BIO with marks scheme
BIO final
2013
BIO with marks scheme
BIO final
2012
BIO with marks scheme
BIO final
2011
BIO with marks scheme
BIO final
2010
BIO with marks scheme
BIO final
2009
BIO with marks scheme
BIO final
2008
BIO with marks scheme
BIO final
2007
BIO with marks scheme
BIO final
2006
Sample paper with marks scheme and worked examples. Taken from the 2004 BIO.
BIO with marks scheme
BIO final
2005
Sample paper with marks scheme and worked examples. Taken from the 2004 BIO.
BIO with marks scheme
BIO final
2004
Sample paper with marks scheme. Taken from the 2003 BIO.
BIO with marks scheme and worked solutions
BIO final
2003
Sample paper with marks scheme. Taken from the 2002 BIO.
BIO with marks scheme
BIO final
2002
Sample paper with marks scheme. Taken from the 2001 BIO.
BIO with marks scheme
BIO final
2001
Sample paper with marks scheme. Taken from the 2000 BIO.
BIO with marks scheme
BIO final
2000
Sample paper with worked solutions, examples and marking. Taken from the 1999 BIO.
BIO with marks scheme
BIO final
1999
Sample paper with worked solutions, examples and marking. Taken from the 1998 BIO.
BIO with worked solutions, examples and marking
BIO final
1998
Sample paper with worked solutions, examples and marking. Taken from the 1997 BIO.
BIO with worked solutions, examples and marking
BIO final
1997
Sample paper with worked solutions/marks
BIO with worked solutions, examples and marking
BIO final
1996
Sample paper
BIO with worked solutions/marks
BIO final
1995
Sample paper with solutions
BIO with solutions
BIO final with solutions
List of past BIO problems (1995 - 2004).

Suitable for those with limited programming experience:
Mayan Calendar BIO 2004 Q1
ISBN BIO 2003 Q1
Lojban BIO 2002 Q1
Circle counting BIO 2001 Q1
Passwords BIO 2000 Q1
Rivers of numbers BIO'99 Q1
Roman numerals BIO'98 Q1
Time to words BIO'97 Q1
Amicable numbers BIO'96 Q1
Prime numbers BIO'95 samples
Word count BIO'95 samples
Bubble sort BIO'95 samples

Harder problems testing more advanced programming:
Four in a line BIO 2004 Q2
Large numbers BIO 2004 final warmup
Waves BIO 2003 Q2
Factorial digits BIO 2002 final
Shuffling BIO 2002 Q2
Playfair cipher BIO 2001 Q2
Ants BIO 2000 Q2
Black Box (Atom) BIO'99 Q2
Tamworth Two BIO'98 Q2
Paper cuts part one BIO'98 final
Domino fitting BIO'98 final
Reversi BIO'97 Q2
Game of life BIO'96 Q2
Retired computer BIO'97 final
Text coder BIO'95 Q1
Magic squares BIO'95 Q2 (written)
Square hopping BIO'95 final

Difficult programming problems:
Morse Code BIO 2004 Q3
Alpha complexities BIO 2004 final
Coin flipping BIO 2004 final
As the pigeon flies BIO 2004 final
Murder mystery BIO 2004 final
New Order BIO 2003 Q3
Wonky widgets BIO 2003 final
Humps BIO 2003 final
All square BIO 2003 final
Scary numbers BIO 2003 final
Mops BIO 2002 Q3
Dressage for pigeons BIO 2002 final
Strangers BIO 2002 final
Film - part one BIO 2002 final
Film - part two BIO 2002 final
Film - part three BIO 2002 final
2001: A space oddity BIO 2001 Q3
Widget, Wotsit and Doodah BIO 2001 final
Code book BIO 2001 final
Code book - bonus question BIO 2001 final
Home on the range - part one BIO 2001 final
Home on the range - part two BIO 2001 final
Home on the range - part three BIO 2001 final
Dice Game BIO 2000 Q3
Fibonnaci's revenge BIO 2000 final
University places BIO 2000 final
Town planning - part one BIO 2000 final
Town planning - part two BIO 2000 final
Card shuffling BIO'99 final
Zig-zag numbers BIO'99 final
Spy vs spy part one BIO'99 final
Spy vs spy part two BIO'99 final
Playing Games BIO'99 Q3
Paper cuts part two BIO'98 final
Coloured routes BIO'98 final
Alphametics (Cryptarithms) BIO'98 Q3
3-D maze BIO'97 final
Crossword BIO'97 final
Egyptian fractions BIO'97 Q3
Connecting towns BIO'96 final
Selection matching BIO'96 final
Domino tiling BIO'96 Q3

Difficult written problems:
Dining philosophers BIO 2004 final
Image retrieval BIO 2004 final
Compression BIO 2003 final
Pinball BIO 2003 final
Bubble memory BIO 2002 final
Humour BIO 2002 final
Analogue gadgets BIO 2001 final
Traffic BIO 2001 final
Tournament BIO 2000 final
Spell-checking BIO 2000 final
A piece of cake BIO'99 final
References BIO'99 final
Making a difference BIO'98 final
Prison escape BIO'98 final
String matching BIO'97 final
Chess/game playing BIO'97 final
Trees and heaps BIO'96 final
Randomness BIO'96 final
Prefix addition BIO'95 final
Language recognition BIO'95 final

IOI - Tasks

2003
1.1 Maintain
1.2 Code
1.3 Reverse
2.1 Guess
2.2 Robots
2.3 Boundary

2002
Competition Day 1
1.1 Frog
1.2 Utopia
1.3 Xor
Competition Day 2
2.1 Batch
2.2 Bus
2.3 Rods

2001
1.1. Mobiles (pdf/rtf)
1.2. Ioiwari (pdf/rtf)
1.3. Twofive (pdf/rtf)
2.1. Score (pdf/rtf)
2.2. Double (pdf/rtf) (also requires AES-Rijndael implementation)
2.3. Depot (pdf/rtf)

2000 - original site | local mirror
1.1. Palindrome (doc/zip)
1.2. Car Parking (doc/zip)
1.3. Median Strength (doc /zip)
1.4. Messages from Interactive Library (doc/zip)
1.5. Messages from Output Format Checkers (doc/zip)
2.1. Overview doc/zip
2.2. Post Office doc/zip
2.3. Walls doc/zip
2.4. Building with Blocks doc/zip
2.5. Messages from Output Format Checkers doc/zip

1999
1.1 Little shop of flowers
1.2 Hidden codes
1.3 Underground city
2.1 Traffic lights
2.2 Flatten
2.3 Strip of land

1998
1.1 Contact
1.2 Starry Night
1.3 Party Lamps
2.1 Picture
2.2 Camelot
2.3 Polygon

1997
1.1 Mars rover
1.2 Hex game
1.3 Toxic bug
2.1 Image recognition
2.2 Map labels
2.3 Container stacking

1996
1.1 End number game
1.2 Job processing
1.3 School network
2.1 3-valued sort
2.2 Longest prefix
2.3 Rubik magic

1995
1.1 Packing rectangles
1.2 Shopping offers
1.3 Printing (written)
2.1 Letter game
2.2 Street race
2.3 Wires and switches
Spare: Fence factory
Spare: Word chains
Spare: Bar codes
Spare: Faulty network

1994
1.1 Triangle sum
1.2 Castle rooms
1.3 Prime squares
2.1 Clock arithmetic
2.2 Bus timetables
2.3 Circle arithmetic

British Informatics Olympiad